Irregular clinks echoed through the rocky tunnel like a cascade. The sound of metal pickaxes on manastone.

  Otto had organized all of the survivors into hunters, regardless of strength. And all had been sent to the manastone mine to plunder its riches.

  It was a more laborious endeavor than Banda expected. Manastones were immensely durable under normal circumstances, and seemed to root themselves into the very stone they grew from.

  The only way to break them out, was to strike with aura. The white glow of Armor coated the pickaxes of the workers as they exhausted themselves in their labor, but even then it seemed an arduous task for peak Rank 1s.

  Although difficult, the only cost to plundering the manastones was time. If that was all there was to it, then it would be an easy task. But there was another problem.

  Banda turned his focus to the rumbling of another stampede. Mole-like creatures the size of a cow charged with reckless aggression. Each had fleshy pale-pink skin, two large protruding front teeth, and large curved claws. Mormoles.

  They were blind and even lacked the sense of smell, but they were highly sensitive to vibrations. So the constant labor of the miners attracted constant waves of them.

  Mormoles were mere low-grade monsters, but most were Rank 2 and there were many of them. Too much for simple laborers to handle.

  Thus they were split into exterminators and miners, with he and Eres naturally tasked as exterminators. They and the others fended off the monsters while the miners focused on their work.

  Banda tore through their soft flesh with ease, taking care to kill them in a single blow. Mormoles had a near absent sensitivity to pain, which made them annoying opponents. Any damage that did not impede their movements would not slow them down.

  Still, they were weak. Banda finished more than his share of the work, and glanced at his hand. The Book Peddler was not among the survivors, which was problem for him. He wanted to change his arts for new ones. Ones that would better aid schemes over strength.

  “Why did Otto not force us to allow Shamura to spy?” Banda asked, as he too wondered as much.

  Eres glanced over coldly. “...There’s no point thinking about it. The only way we’re getting out of this is by raising our strength. Quickly.”

  “We can’t beat him.” Banda shot the thought down immediately. It bothered him to say as much, and bothered him more still to say the next words. “We must be cunning…”

  Eres looked at him in disgust. “Is being beaten once all it takes for you to lose your spine?”

  Banda’s face tightened in irritation. “I am alive. I can grow stronger. We just need to survive.”

  “While I’m glad you finally see the value in thinking before you act…” Eres spoke. “It’s pointless. Otto is smarter and more cunning. Whatever we do, he’ll be one step ahead. Brute force is the only way to break though his web.”

  “You are the coward.” Banda accused. “He outsmarted you. Now you are scared to scheme. But you are ignorant of facing a true predator. Cunning is the only way to live.”

  “I don’t believe this…” Eres grumbled.

  Instinct stole Banda’s attention as he turned his focus discreetly behind him, to a bearded man with black markings down his eyes, who paid a keen interest to the both of them.

  Whether opportunism or a grudge for the events of the night before, Banda did not know. But it did not matter. Otto might be out of the reach of his claws, but he was not so wretched that he couldn’t slaughter weaklings such as these.

  “A fucking warlock…” One of the exterminators groused. “I knew something wasn’t right with him.”

  “What does it matter?” Another responded. “Our situation is still the same.”

  “Focus.” An old bald man with a hunched back and a wrinkled face snapped up. “I did not survive a horde and scourge just to die in some mine.”

  “And if you survive this, old man?” The first asked. “What comes after the mine?”

  The old man’s scowl deepened, but he did not respond. Instead his attention drifted to the two slaughtering mormoles with ease.

  It was obvious during the demonic scourge, but he was reminded that they were just as strong as the slumlords. Maybe even more. If he was to have any chance of breaking free from Otto’s insidious chains, he would have to take a risk.

  The old man quietly beckoned the others over to listen to what he had to say.

  Mormoles fell to Banda’s hands like moths to a flame. In the lull of carnage he glanced over at Eres.

  She could kill with just as much ease as him, now that she used her Guardian Arms openly. But she herself was vulnerable, especially to numbers. And yet she threw herself into the fight continuously and recklessly.

  Banda lunged to kill a mormole that slipped through her guard, and gave her a look of admonishment. But Eres gave only a silent cold look in return and threw herself into the fight again.

  His eyes narrowed but a strange boom in the distance interrupted his thoughts. A second stampede closed in on them, lured by the explosion. Banda readied himself to charge, then suddenly spun around to swat down an aura-coated arrow.

  “Kill them!” The other hunters immediately went all out at the old man’s words, shooting arrows or magic arts as the warriors stood guard.

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  The old man strained with effort and two ghoulish creatures tore out from the underworld. Tall hairless men with pale gray skin. Each had large hands with long clawed fingers and emitted an overwhelming stench of death.

  “Finish it quickly! I can’t control them for long!” The old necromancer shouted as the ghasts charged. “We’ll be free once I raise them as un-”

  Two stones destroyed the heads of the ghouls with ease, and the heads of the attacking hunters soon followed.

  Banda paid them no mind once they fell, and instead raced to Eres’ side, who recklessly fought the stampede alone. But before he could draw near, the mine around them quaked, and the ground collapsed beneath her.

  Eres used her spear cloth to latch onto the roof of the tunnel, but the rock broke away as if the mine itself rejected her.

  Banda shot down without hesitation to catch her and jumped back up the moment he landed, but the floor had rapidly reformed. He gathered his strength and punched it hard enough to almost break through, but the tunnel quickly repaired again.

  Before they could make a decision, a stampede of mormoles was upon them. Most were Rank 2 as usual, but this time they were joined by a number of Rank 3s.

  The two threw themselves into battle, but even a low-grade Rank 3 monster was a real threat. Many rivaled Banda and Eres’ Avatar in physical might, and their sheer number in a tight space proved dangerous.

  As they sheered down the horde of mormoles, Banda spotted another charging in the distance. Lured by the rumbles of the fight.

  He snatched up Eres and fled. It did not matter how much stronger they were than these creatures individually. They would be worn down eventually by endless numbers.

  He glanced all around for a way out, and found the next best thing. A large hole in the wall of the tunnel. Banda jumped in and made himself still.

  The horde caught up quickly and crossed by without incident. The beasts only responded to vibration, so there was no chance they would be found amidst the ruckus of a stampede.

  As soon as the noise of the horde faded away, Banda walked back out into the tunnel and Eres followed.

  “The mine must be alive.” She commented. “Or at least have a spiritual will of some sort. We can’t break out, so we need to find the exit.”

  “How?” Banda asked. They had no idea of the layout of the mine. They did not even know which direction to start.

  Eres pulled out a single strand of her hair and held it out in the center of the tunnel. She waited calmly until finally it rustled in the slightest breeze. “The exit must be in the direction of the wind, so we head that way.”

  She walked off without waiting for approval, and Banda quietly followed. Both took care to step softly.

  They walked for some time without much issue. Aside from the dim glow of manastones, there didn’t seem to be much else in the mines.

  The clusters of manastones were larger and more plentiful in this deeper layer, but neither gave the temptation a second thought. They could not risk alerting the mormoles.

  Banda frowned at Eres. He could see just fine in dim light settings while in Feral Form, which had not stopped using even for a moment since they fell, but humans could not. And yet she walked more boldly than him.

  “Stop being reckless.” He said bluntly.

  “Is that how resolve looks to a coward?”

  Banda grit his teeth. She was saying foolish insults again. Foolish and ignorant. But more frustrating than that, she was being reckless with her life. And her life was his as well.

  He started to open his mouth, but something caught his eye. He swiftly and silently ushered Eres and himself to the flat of the wall. And they waited.

  A single stray mormole ambled down the tunnel. Blind, deaf, with no sense of smell, just stumbling clumsily in a straight line seemed the best it could do.

  As it walked past, the two stayed perfectly still. They did not even breathe. But the mormole stopped suddenly and lunged towards them with a shrill screech.

  Banda killed it effortlessly but the noise of a stampede sounded in the distance.

  “It must have felt our heartbeats…” Eres guessed. She couldn’t think of any other explanation.

  The two prepared to outrun the horde before it could reach them, but suddenly a mass of earth rose from the ground and twisted into the form of a large stone humanoid torso wielding a large hammer of the same make. And it emanated mana density greater than the ogre.

  The monster slammed its hammer into the ground, and Banda darted away from the spike of stone that thrust out from the ground.

  “It’s a Daod.” Eres spoke as they fought. “A mid-grade elemental. It can shape and forge earth as it pleases with its hammer. That must be what’s topping us from leaving the mine.”

  The peak Rank 3 monster hammered more earth spikes at them. Banda was forced to dodge while Eres used her shield as a platform, to stand away from the spikes and guard against them at the same time.

  A fractured piece of stone Banda threw back in return broke against the daod’s body to no effect. He threw a runestone next that cracked its face, but the damage repaired itself in a mere moment.

  The Daod raised its hammer high with both hands and slammed it down. The rock hard ground turned to loose mud that spread over Banda’s feet in an instant, and solidified again the moment they sank.

  It soared towards him and swung the hammer at his head. Banda used his Iron Fist claws to strike at the ground, but it had become harder than his own hands.

  The hammer arrived before he could try again. With a flash of thought, he twisted his body to deflect the blow just enough to shattered the hardened ground, allowing him to jump free.

  By the force of the strike, banda judged it was not nearly as strong as the ogre, but it was still twice that of the wight. Not something he could risk taking a direct hit from. Even that single deflection made his bones creak and ache.

  Eres rushed past him with golden eyes and launched a barrage of attacks with her spear. The Daod blocked them all and bashed the spear away, and she blasted it with a mass of golden aura.

  Only minor damaged showed on the daod’s body as the dust settled, but Eres did not relent. She used her blazing fire cloth to steal away its offended attention, and used her Palm Blast again.

  As she continued her onslaught, Banda noticed the technique start to change. Sometimes it weakened and failed, other times it almost grew too strong for her to control.

  But still she used it without end. Finally, a glimmer of light shined in her golden eyes. The clashing circles in her inner sea were forced together, and a giant lopsided blast exploded on the daod.

  This time, it did real damage. And now the daod focused solely on her. It battered its hammer against the walls and the ground, and the tunnel started to morph. It writhed and contorted, and Banda realized its goal.

  Eres readied to strike again, but he grabbed her and fled, just fast enough to escape the part of the tunnel that squeezed shut behind them.

  “Don’t run!” Eres objected.

  But Banda saw the writing on the wall. Her aura was low, and her judgement was more impaired than ever when her eyes were golden. It was not a fight they could have won. But they did not need to. They only needed to escape.

  Eres clicked her teeth, but did not say any more. Banda raced through the simple network of tunnels as softly as he could. The more he ran, the stronger the faint smell of trees and fresh air became among the pungent earth.

  He turned left at a corner and came face to face with a solid stone wall. It was new, the smell of mana within it stronger than that of the ground beneath them. Banda pushed his hand against the wall and felt it as deep as the ground.

  “This is the way outside…”